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Synopsis

Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?; and the celebrated poems “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton, and “Amazing Peace,” which she read at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., in December 2005.

Excerpt

Mother,During those early dearest daysI did not dream that you hadA large life which included me, For I had a life which was only you._______________________________

The way you posed your headSo that the light could caress your faceWhen you put your fingers on my handAnd your hand on my arm,I was struck with a sense of health,Of strength and very good fortune.

About Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them Phenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Mother. Maya Angelou died in 2014.